Some fans may wonder why Black Myth: Wukong hasn’t come out on Xbox just yet, and Game Science founder and CEO Yocar-Feng Ji seems to have revealed just that.
Despite being a critical and commercial success, Black Myth: Wukong had many lows thanks to the controversies involving the game before and after it came out. The game also had highs, breaking multiple records, including having record player numbers on debut and causing the download bandwidth usage on Steam to reach its new peak at 70 terabytes per second.
While those on a PC or PlayStation 5 could enjoy the Game of the Year contender, Xbox players were left out. Many fans assumed an exclusivity deal with Sony was in play, but that may not be true. Developer Game Science’s founder and CEO put out a new statement revealing exactly why Black Myth: Wukong isn’t on Xbox.
According to Game Science CEO Yocar-Feng Ji, Black Myth: Wukong isn’t getting an Xbox port because of the Xbox Series S and the console’s limitations.
Feng Ji posted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo talking about the many awards Black Myth: Wukong received in the 2024 Steam Awards. He claimed the only thing missing was an Xbox port. However, the 10 GB “shared memory” of the Xbox Series S is holding the game back.
Unlike the PS5 and Xbox Series X, the Xbox Series S only has 10 GB of RAM. Out of that, 8 GB is used for games while the rest is reserved for other computing activities. To put things into perspective, the other current-gen consoles have 16 GB RAM. 16 GB of RAM is also the minimum requirement for the PC version. And games ported to Xbox are required to run on both the Series X and Series S lines of the console.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Series S holds back an Xbox port. Larian Studios faced a similar roadblock when developing 2023’s Game of the Year Baldur’s Gate 3. Microsoft’s policy doesn’t allow for any disparity between its two consoles and the studio was struggling to implement couch co-op for the weaker Series S. There were also prior statements claiming Black Myth: Wukong’s Xbox port was indefinitely delayed because of a memory leak that caused crashes on the Microsoft console. However, no official source verified these claims.
Feng-Ji didn’t shoot down the possibility of an Xbox port arriving some day in the far future, but it seems unlikely. In the post, he claims releasing Black Myth: Wukong on the Xbox Series S would be impossible without “several years of optimization experience.” It’s important to note that Game Science had previously only worked on mobile-friendly games. This suggests the studio may not have the optimization capabilities to ensure the game runs properly on the Series S, also suggested by the poor performance some experienced with the game on PC.
Black Myth: Wukong isn’t a PlayStation exclusive, even though it isn’t yet available on Xbox and may well never be.
Black Myth: Wukong simultaneously came out on PlayStation and PC and the studio that created it has stated it’s been working on an Xbox port since. Many fans assumed Black Myth: Wukong had a timed exclusivity deal similar to Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, though neither Game Science or Sony would confirm that.
Game Science CEO’s statement suggests Black Myth: Wukong was never a timed exclusive. Instead, the game didn’t get an Xbox port because the Xbox Series S held it back. While some fans believe Microsoft should make a deal with Game Science letting it limit some features in the Series S port, similar to what happened with Baldur’s Gate 3, others blame the game’s lack of optimization for the continued lack of a proper port.
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